primitives discuss digging post-holes

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/11583108

Oh my.

MineralMan (63,895 posts)    Sun May 18, 2014, 03:22 PM

Digging Post Holes without Destroying Yourself.

Right now, I'm in the process of installing a chain link fence around my back yard. Lots of posts, so lots of post holes. I considered renting a power post hole auger, but decided to hand dig, instead, after watching a few videos that made it clear that the power method is no panacea.
 
So, I bought a traditional clamshell-type post hole digger. About $35. After working with it and getting stalled by a rock in the second hole, I did some more research. I spent another $35 for a digging bar. Weighing 17 lb, it has a chisel-shaped blade on one end, forged from the 1.5" diameter round steel bar, 6' long.
 
So, in my clay soil, which has a few small rocks in it, here's what I found to be the easiest method.
 
1. Start the hole with the clamshell digger. Just establish its diameter and dig down a couple of inches.

2. Use the digging bar to loosen the soil below the current level. It's heavy enough that you can really just drop it, or slam it down a little if a rock or something is in the way. Do this on all four quadrants of the circular hole, using the bar as a lever to loosen the dirt in the hole. Use the digging bar to go down about 6" deeper than the current level.

3. Use the clamshell post hole digger to remove the loosened dirt.

4. Repeat as necessary to the correct depth for the hole

This method is much less hard work and less jarring than using the clamshell digger alone. Allow about 10-15 minutes for each hole. The digger bar will break limestone rock, and can be used as a lever to loosen other types of rocks for removal with the clamshell digger.

Clam-shell post hole digger

after which a picture

Digging bar

after which a second picture

Leme (24 posts)    Sun May 18, 2014, 03:36 PM

1. if applicable ( in a city etc)

Call hot line or utilities to avoid lines.

the power auger , if they get stuck, will whip around and break your ribs.

HooptieWagon (9,259 posts)    Sun May 18, 2014, 03:57 PM

2. Water pressure can loosen compacted soil...

either a nozzle on a garden hose, or a high-pressure sprayer.

Leme (24 posts)    Sun May 18, 2014, 06:06 PM

4. post said it was clay soil

might end up with a half made hole filled with water for a week or two

linbarkertx (8 posts)    Sun May 18, 2014, 04:20 PM

3. Digging post holes

When I was a kid, my Dad leased land all over the county to raise his cattle on. Every one of those pastures needed to be refenced.

Guess who was tasked with that little operation? I must have run a 100 miles of barbed wire and thousands of posts while I was in Junior High and High School. When I was 15 I swore I would never buy a posthole digger. I'm 66 now and the only reason I have one is my brother wouldn't take it when Dad died.

[I_B_Perky]

Leme (24 posts)    Sun May 18, 2014, 03:36 PM

1. if applicable ( in a city etc)

Call hot line or utilities to avoid lines.

the power auger , if they get stuck, will whip around and break your ribs.

Naw, don't do that. Those lines won't bother you at all. Just dig away, Dummie. 

Just goes to show you the dummies can even **** up digging a hole in the ground. I wonder if he knows the difference between the holes he had dug and his ass?

[GOBUCKS]

First time I ever heard a spud bar called a "digging bar".

Maybe that's a democrat name for the tool.

I've used them lots of times for ice fishing (one of the things I miss here in red state hell).

If you need holes in the ground, hire a guy with a tractor and a PTO.

[dutch508]

So far this spring I've put in over 60 posts and repaired wire on our 4 sections of land in the Sandhills. We put our courners in using rail road ties.
I don't remember having to read the instruction manual on how to work the ****ing post-hole diggers.

[I_B_Perky]

So far this spring I've put in over 60 posts and repaired wire on our 4 sections of land in the Sandhills. We put our courners in using rail road ties.
I don't remember having to read the instruction manual on how to work the ****ing post-hole diggers.

That is because you know the difference between said holes and your hind end.  Dummies? Not so much.   

[FlippyDoo]

If I went into any hardware store within a 100 mile radius of where I'm sitting and said, "I want a traditional clam-shell type post hole digger" anyone working in the store (even the women working the cash registers who have never been beyond the store's checkout line) would look at me like I'm crazy and ask, "so you want a post hole digger?"

Why do DUmmies have to make everything more complex than it needs to be?

[GOBUCKS]

I have a hunch that until he started watching Youtube videos, DUmmy MineralMan had never heard of a post hole digger.

He thought it needed the "clamshell-type" description.

He is, after all, a DUmmy.

[zeitgeist]

First time I ever heard a spud bar called a "digging bar".

Maybe that's a democrat name for the tool.
I've used them lots of times for ice fishing (one of the things I miss here in red state hell).

If you need holes in the ground, hire a guy with a tractor and a PTO.

Naw, that would be John f. Kerry (who surfed in Vietnam)

[I_B_Perky]

Why do DUmmies have to make everything more complex than it needs to be?

Cause they are dummies?   

Funny how the bestest, smartest folk on the internet, that want need to tell us folk, that are too stupid to vote in our best interest, how to run our lives when they cannot even dig a damned hole in the ground. 

Then they wonder why we laugh at them!!! 

I gots me an idea folks!!!  How about we make demonstrating digging a hole in the ground a requisite for voting? Hand the idiots the post hole digger, point to the ground and say get to it. Dummie be there all day trying to figure out how to operate it and eventually the poll would close. If on the off chance they did dig the hole, then ask them what is the difference between that and their ass. That would take them a week at least.

[JohnnyReb]

Learned as a wee lad how to "throw" 'the clam shell digger' into hard dry clay and dig a post hole. There is an art to it, your hands should not even be on the handles when it slams into the bottom of the hole.

......and quit buying the lightweight Chinese made 'clam shell diggers'.

[GOBUCKS]

Someone's gonna get in trouble with the Ku Klux Klams.

This guy obviously didn't read the directions on how to use a spud bar with his clamdigger.

[FlippyDoo]

Learned as a wee lad how to "throw" 'the clam shell digger' into hard dry clay and dig a post hole. There is an art to it, your hands should not even be on the handles when it slams into the bottom of the hole.

......and quit buying the lightweight Chinese made 'clam shell diggers'.

Around here you tend run into either hard dry clay or dirt infested with roots. In either case we usually use the method you mentioned. We have had on several occasions to repair the blades. Oak roots can gnarl them up pretty badly.

I remember one day at the ripe young age of 19 having to do some hole digging in an area full of oak trees. After a couple of hours I noticed the digging was getting even more difficult so I took a break. As I was setting there drinking some water I happened to look over at the hole diggers and noticed that the blades were so bent up that they looked like Fred Sanford's hands when he claimed to have arthritis.

[thundley4]

Wouldn't it be easier to go to the Home Depot and hire some of those guys hanging around out front to do the digging?   

[98ZJUSMC]

First time I ever heard a spud bar called a "digging bar".

Maybe that's a democrat name for the tool.

I've used them lots of times for ice fishing (one of the things I miss here in red state hell).

I use a 40lb."tanker" bar.  EVERY spot that I go to dig postholes, has a rock somewhere.  Every. One.  Luckily, the tanker bar shatterers/cracks them, relatively, easily.

If you need holes in the ground, hire a guy with a tractor and a PTO.

   Except on my lakeside.  Steep hill.

[98ZJUSMC]

So far this spring I've put in over 60 posts and repaired wire on our 4 sections of land in the Sandhills. We put our courners in using rail road ties.
I don't remember having to read the instruction manual on how to work the ****ing post-hole diggers.

[diesel driver]

We had a PTO driven auger mounted to the rear of a tractor, and a post driver on the front.  We would dig a 4" hole with the auger, then drive a 6"+ diameter post into the hole.  Me, my Dad, and my younger brother built 1.5 miles of fence in 6 days that way, the last 3 days were spent driving steeples.

Since the DUmmie is building a chain-link fence, perhaps the Rent-All place would have a skid-steer loader with an auger mounted to the front, but the coordination required to operate said loader is beyond that of a DUmmie.  Most have trouble walking and chewing gum at the same time, the rest have to be reminded to breathe periodically.

I wonder if DUmmie Mineralman remembered the Quik-crete to set the posts in the holes with...